Happy birthday to us! To celebrate our first year as a brewery we brewed a serious imperial stout and aged it on cocoa nibs, vanilla beans, cinnamon sticks, and fresh habanero peppers. This is the first offering in our annual Anniversary series. Here’s to many more!

More User Reviews:

A- Jet black pour with a khaki finger-sized head that vanishes quickly. S- I get bitter chocolate, big roasty flavors. Some booze. T- chocolate, roast, you definitely get the cinnamon flavors and the spiciness from the peppers really finish off the sip nicely. M- heavy-medium feel. Like drinking boozy chocolate cake batter. Moderately carb'ed. Booze hidden well in sip. Actually get more heat from the peppers. O- glad I got to try this one. Gets lots of hype and deservedly so but I wouldn't quite say world-class. Still, very delicious! (546 characters)

This years is very nice- smooth rich flavor, a touch of heat, nice chocolate and vanilla notes. This is a good one. I had it on tap so I can't vouch for the heat in the bottle- without the heat it wouldnt be anywhere near as good. (230 characters)

Bottled 5/6/2015->bottle says best consumed fresh, don’t age it: Pours pitch black opaque color with a thick 2 finger brown head that was full of tiny bubbles and faded about average time for a stout leaving decent spotty lacing and rings as it went down. A layer sticks around on top.

Smells of cocoa powder, dark chocolate, light vanilla, coffee grinds, charred wood, roasted malts, oaky notes, smoke, toffee and brown sugar; the spice is evident, but it does not smell like a pepper, especially a habanero. Earthy notes mix well with the chocolate and smoked malts, adding a lot of complexities for basically a one dimensional aroma.

Taste is where all the ingredients on the label show up: the cocoa nibs, vanilla beans and cinnamon are all quite pronounced and the habanero brings immediate head that does not hurt but adds a whole new aspect and feel to the beer. The heat is like wasabi, it strikes adding some instant heat and flavor, and trails off nicely and allows the malty side show off with appearances by the cocoa powder, dark chocolate, coffee grinds, charred wood, roasted malts, oaky notes, smoke, molasses, toffee, brown sugar and some spices. Seems like piney hops are in the mix along with white pepper and fresh ground black peppercorns, along with a shot of bourbon or whiskey. The alcohol gets covered up by the habanero burn, which warms up the back of your throat and belly in the best way possible for those who like hot peppers or spicy food. The cinnamon and vanilla come on strong at the end with a mild bitterness blending with char and chocolate notes. Considering the level of heat from the habanero this drinks much smoother than it should and remains very interesting and complex with every sip.

Mouthfeel is very creamy and milkshake smooth, with very mild and almost thin carbonation, a medium chewy body that leans towards thick yet slides across the tongue, and then fades slightly bitter like a coffee with a lot of grinds in it and a full slap in the face of heat that stings and then fades slowly as it gets swapped out for dark chocolate, vanilla and spicy cinnamon. The blending and mixture of the main components really keep this dynamic and extremely interesting at the same time. This is an excellent display of brewing craftsmanship to bring such heat and booze so aggressively that results in a complex, tasty beer that flows down so smooth with such a velvety feel even though it seems like you just drank a shot or ate a jalapeño popper.

I got this hoping for a great beer but expecting a novelty beer since it’s billed as a stout with habanero in the blend; it turned out to be a great brew that was changing and evolving with every sip, allowing the pepper heat to add accents which tweaked the beer each and every sip. Shock and awe, this was a great unique beer experience which exceeded my expectations. I thought this was great and hope to have it again some day. A lot of fun and a great combo if you love stouts and love spicy food. (3,005 characters)

Overall - I am impressed. I thought the habanero kick would have significantly dissipated, but I was wrong. Better than Hunahpu, no. Better than Xocoveza, yes. Better than Cafe Con Lech, different. Better than Belching Beaver Horchata Milk Stout, different. Nonetheless, these are all different beers with different adjuncts. It does show how much ethnic tastes and flavors can influence beer. This is a high end stout that shows off the Mexican influence. This is definitely something I will seek out in the near future. (1,077 characters)

a really amazing beer, didnt think i would find one in a store on this first round to colorado, but i got lucky up in fort collins. its crazy beer, in the abraxas style, but very very different. the fresh habanero pepper instead of an ancho type makes a huge difference, you get that fleshy pulpy fresh pepper flavor in the beer without the smoky heat in the same way. inky black beer, very dense, heady, and intimidating as a night cap. the habanero flavor is really intense, but the heat is not, just warming in the throat and not lingering. im not a huge chili beer guy, and this is very very drinkable in terms of pepper influence. the cinnamon would be the next strongest of the additives, its spicy in own right, and works amazingly well with the bittersweet dark barley, ashy almost burnt, and thats where the desserty element comes from, the coffee notes in the malt with that cinnamon, its awesome. vanilla and cocoa do more highlighting and accenting as center staging, balancing sweet and bitter elements really well, and also bringing the most out of the malts. its like a cake batter, i see that in the base beer very much, the additives take it to the next lever, crazy really how flavorful this is. its also just so smooth and silky drinking, like the frosting that might be on such a cake. i thought this might be too much pepper for my palate, but i think its right on with the other flavors in here. gets boozy and a little sweet as it warms, but this is a really special beer. make sure you have a partner in crime who you can share this one with, a whole bomber is a serious task! (1,600 characters)

Somehow I expected this to be overrated, but it lived up to expectations. Great chocolate aroma and flavor. So smooth and well balanced. The peppers were not too hot, and the medium mouth feel held everything together quite well. I got some cinnamon and graham cracker sweetness, but I think the cinnamon had faded a little since this bottle was a year old. I look forward to trying this again when it is fresh. (411 characters)

Great beer. You can really smell the habanero peppers and there is a lot of heat up front. It cools off though as you sip this beer and really start to enjoy the coffee and spices. I didn't get a ton of cinnamon which I think is good but you could taste its presence. I really enjoyed this beer, would love to see what one of the barrel aged versions does to the flavor. (371 characters)

Got a few bottles of this from various people - thank you to all. The pour is very dark; dark enough to be called black, allowing almost no light to pass through when staring directly at it. The head is a thing of beauty; fine-bubbled, foamy, and mocha in color, it's slow to settle down and leaves pretty decent lacing for a 10%+ ABV imperial stout.

At first, the aroma took me back and seemed just a tad cluttered. Luckily, as things progressed and the beer warmed up a bit, the different aromatic elements started to mesh and intertwine quite nicely, which is a good thing since there's so much going on. I highly suggest letting this one warm a bit before enjoying it.

The nose is heavy with milky chocolates, sweet, sweet vanilla beans, substantial roasted malt, and a light dash of cinnamon. Peppers go somewhat unnoticed in the aroma, and any kind of spiciness noted can probably be attributed to the cinnamon. Very robust smelling, a complex and nice execution of many different parts. Mild leathery notes on the very back end.

The first sip starts off with a beautiful dose of roasted malts before quickly becoming compounded with mounds of cocoa nibs and lively, sweet vanilla. It tastes like a molten fudge cake with warm vanilla drizzle on top. Very sweet, pushing the edge of almost being too sweet, but luckily falling just short and remaining manageable the whole time.

Cinnamon is a bit understated at first, but becomes quite nice with even more warmth; nice, toasty cinnamon flavor without being too spicy on the tongue. Peppers don't add much flavor-wise, but they are appreciated in the form of a lasting tingle on the very back of the throat and tongue. A solid, layered addition without adding any real "heat" to the brew, rendering it undrinkable.

Mexican Cake finishes with a sweet, resounding aftertaste full of nuttiness, vanilla, heavy fudge, a touch of cinnamon, and some tingling pepper presence. The viscous and thick body is just shy of chewy, but feels good for a stout; medium carbonation. I was hesitant to try this because with this list of ingredients, things could easily have gone awry. Luckily the execution was great, and the beer was really quite tasty. (2,199 characters)